Editing Martin Bormann (section)

==Death, rumours of survival and discovery of remains==
[[File:1946-10-08 21 Nazi Chiefs Guilty.ogv|thumb|thumbtime=113|1 October 1946 newsreel of [[Nuremberg trials]] sentencing]]

===Axmann's account of Bormann's death===
At around 11:00 pm on 1 May, Bormann left the ''Führerbunker'' with SS doctor [[Ludwig Stumpfegger]], [[Hitler Youth]] leader [[Artur Axmann]], and Hitler's pilot [[Hans Baur]], part of one of the groups attempting to break out of the Soviet encirclement.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|pp=382–383}}{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=151}} Bormann carried with him a copy of Hitler's last will and testament.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=382}} The group left the ''Führerbunker'' and travelled on foot via an [[Berlin U-Bahn|U-Bahn]] subway tunnel to the [[Berlin Friedrichstraße station|Friedrichstraße station]], where they surfaced.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|p=397}} Several members of the party attempted to cross the [[Spree (river)|Spree]] River at the [[Weidendammer Bridge]] while crouching behind a [[Tiger II|Tiger tank]]. The tank was hit by an anti-tank round and Bormann and Stumpfegger were knocked to the ground.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|pp=382–383}} Bormann, Stumpfegger, and several others eventually crossed the river on their third attempt.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|pp=382–383}} Bormann, Stumpfegger, and Axmann walked along the railway tracks to [[Berlin Hauptbahnhof|Lehrter station]], where Axmann decided to leave the others and go in the opposite direction.{{sfn|Le Tissier|2010|p=188}} When he encountered a Red Army patrol, Axmann doubled back. He saw two bodies, which he later identified as Bormann and Stumpfegger, on a bridge near the railway shunting yard.{{sfn|Le Tissier|2010|p=188}}{{sfn|Trevor-Roper|2002|p=193}} He did not have time to check thoroughly, so he did not know how they died.{{sfn|Beevor|2002|p=383}} Since the Soviets never admitted to finding Bormann's body, his fate remained in doubt for many years.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|pp=158–159}}

===Tried at Nuremberg ''in absentia''===
During the chaotic days after the war, contradictory reports arose as to Bormann's whereabouts. Sightings were reported in Argentina, Spain, and elsewhere.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|pp=172, 174}} Bormann's wife was placed under surveillance in case he tried to contact her.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|p=173}} Jakob Glas, Bormann's long-time chauffeur, insisted that he saw Bormann in Munich in July 1946.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|p=177}} In case Bormann was still alive, multiple public notices about the upcoming [[Nuremberg trials]] were placed in newspapers and on the radio in October and November 1945 to notify him of the proceedings against him.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|pp=167–168}}

The trial got under way on 20 November 1945. Lacking evidence confirming Bormann's death, the International Military Tribunal tried him ''[[trial in absentia|in absentia]]'', as permitted under article 12 of their charter.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|p=169}} He was charged with three counts: conspiracy to wage a war of aggression, [[war crime]]s, and [[crimes against humanity]].{{sfn|McGovern|1968|p=178}} His prosecution was assigned to Lieutenant Thomas F. Lambert Jr. and his defence to Friedrich Bergold.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|pp=169, 171}} The prosecution stated that Bormann participated in planning and co-signed virtually all of the [[antisemitic]] legislation put forward by the regime.{{sfn|Lang|1979|p=229}} Bergold unsuccessfully proposed that the court could not convict Bormann because he was already dead. Due to the shadowy nature of Bormann's activities, Bergold was unable to refute the prosecution's assertions as to the extent of his involvement in decision making.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|p=177}} Bormann was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity and acquitted of conspiracy to wage a war of aggression. On 1 October 1946, he was sentenced to death by hanging, with the provision that if he were later found alive, any new facts brought to light by that time could be taken into consideration to reduce or overturn the sentence.{{sfn|McGovern|1968|p=178}}

===Discovery of remains===
Over the following decades, several organisations, including the [[CIA]] and [[West German]] government, attempted to locate Bormann without success.{{sfn|Whiting|1996|pp=127, 144}} In 1964, the West German government offered a reward of 100,000 [[Deutsche Mark]]s (~€248,000 or ~US$270,000 in 2023 terms<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lawyerdb.de/Inflationrate.aspx |title=German Inflation Rate Calculator to calculate Price Change}}</ref>) for information leading to Bormann's capture.{{sfn|Whiting|1996|p=144}} Sightings were reported all over the world, including Australia, Denmark, Italy, and South America.{{sfn|Hamilton|1984|p=94}}{{sfn|Whiting|1996|pp=98–99, 101}} In his autobiography, army intelligence officer [[Reinhard Gehlen]] claimed that Bormann had been a Soviet spy and had escaped to Moscow.{{sfn|Whiting|1996|pp=162–164}} [[Nazi hunter]] [[Simon Wiesenthal]] believed that Bormann was living in South America.{{sfn|Levy|2006|p=165}} The West German government declared that its hunt for Bormann was over in 1971.{{sfn|Whiting|1996|p=191}}

In 1963, a retired postal worker named Albert Krumnow told police that around 8 May 1945, the Soviets had ordered him and his colleagues to bury two bodies found near a railway bridge near Lehrter station (now [[Berlin Hauptbahnhof]]). One was dressed in a ''Wehrmacht'' uniform and the other was clad only in his underwear.{{sfn|Lang|1979|p=417}} On the second body, Krumnow's colleague, a man named Wagenpfohl, found an SS doctor's paybook identifying him as Ludwig Stumpfegger.{{sfn|Whiting|1996|p=200}} Wagenpfohl gave the paybook to his boss, postal chief Berndt, who turned it over to the Soviets. They in turn destroyed it. Wagenpfohl wrote to Stumpfegger's wife on 14 August 1945, informing her that her husband's body was "interred with the bodies of several other dead soldiers in the grounds of the Alpendorf in Berlin NW 40, Invalidenstrasse 63."{{sfn|Whiting|1996|pp=136–137}}

Excavations on 20–21 July 1965 at the site specified by Axmann and Krumnow failed to locate the bodies.{{sfn|Lang|1979|pp=421–422}} However, on 7 December 1972, construction workers uncovered human remains near Lehrter station in West Berlin, only {{convert|12|m|ft|abbr=on}} from the spot where Krumnow claimed to have buried them.{{sfn|Whiting|1996|pp=217–218}} At the subsequent autopsies, fragments of glass were found in the jaws of both skeletons, suggesting that the men had committed suicide{{sfn|Joachimsthaler|1999|p=285}}{{sfn|Kershaw|2016|p=481}} by biting [[cyanide]] capsules to avoid capture.{{sfn|Lang|1979|p=432}} Dental records reconstructed from memory in 1945 by [[Hugo Blaschke]] identified one skeleton as Bormann's, and damage to the collarbone was consistent with injuries that Bormann's sons reported he had sustained in a riding accident in 1939.{{sfn|Whiting|1996|pp=217–218}} Forensic examiners determined that the size of the skeleton and shape of the skull were identical to Bormann's.{{sfn|Lang|1979|p=432}} Likewise, the second skeleton was deemed to be Stumpfegger's, since it was of similar height to his last known proportions.{{sfn|Whiting|1996|pp=217–218}} Composite photographs, in which images of the skulls were overlaid on photographs of the men's faces, were completely congruent.{{sfn|Lang|1979|p=432}} Facial reconstruction was undertaken in early 1973 on both skulls to confirm the identities of the bodies.{{sfn|Lang|1979|p=436}} Soon afterward, the West German government declared Bormann dead. Bormann's family was not permitted to [[Cremation|cremate]] the body, in case further forensic examination later proved necessary. The family refused burial and refused to take possession of the remains. The bones were placed in a vault at the [[Public Prosecutor General (Germany)| Public Prosecutor's Office]] in Karlsruhe, which was at the time being shared with the [[Federal Court of Justice]].{{sfn|Lang|1979|pp=343–344, 410, 437}}

On 4 May 1998, the remains were conclusively identified as Bormann's after German authorities ordered [[genetic testing]] on fragments of the skull.{{sfn|BBC News|1998}} The testing was led by [[Wolfgang Eisenmenger]], Professor of Forensic Science at [[Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich]].{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=154}} Tests using [[DNA]] from one of his relatives identified the skull as that of Bormann.{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=154}}{{sfn|Karacs|1998}}

After being released to his family, Bormann's remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered over the [[Baltic Sea]] on 16 August 1999.{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=154}} This was done in part to prevent [[Neo Nazis]] from using any potential tomb containing Bormann's remains to create a Neo-Nazi monument.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-30-mn-5090-story.html |title=Nazi’s Remains Are Scattered at Sea |work=Los Angeles Times |date=30 August 2025 |access-date=12 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/aug/29/theobserver |title=Bormann's ashes are dumped in the Baltic |first=Denis |last=Staunton |work=The Guardian |publisher=28 August 1999 |access-date=13 May 2025}}</ref>